US severe weather outbreak to cost insurers $5 billion: BMS

By Scott Vincent

May 19 - (The Insurer) - Severe weather across multiple U.S. states from May 16 to 18 will likely result in insured losses of around $5 billion, BMS senior meteorologist Andrew Siffert said in a LinkedIn post.

Siffert said this would take the tally of insured losses in the U.S. from the severe convective storm peril to around $20 billion for the year to date, with this weekend's outbreak the costliest so far this year.

States of emergency were declared in Kentucky and Missouri over the weekend following several tornadoes across the region, including one in St Louis which damaged 5,000 properties, according to local officials.

Siffert said the St Louis tornado alone would likely be a billion-dollar insured loss event, with hail damage also likely to be costly. Hail is typically the largest component of severe convective storm losses.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said thunderstorms were widespread across portions of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Friday.

Reuters reported that at least half a dozen tornadoes touched down in Missouri and neighboring Illinois and other severe weather stretched all the way to the Atlantic Coast, including another tornado reported in New Jersey.

The NWS has warned that severe thunderstorms will likely continue on Monday over parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, warning of potential for several tornadoes, baseball-size hail and scattered damaging winds.